Hi. My name is Alison. I love pancakes. Probably to an unhealthy degree.
I only recently began making pancakes myself at home; I rarely ever did before, mostly due to a lack of the knowledge that Bisquick is not required to make them (bro tip: it's not required!) So if you are looking for a blog that will help teach you to make the perfect pancakes, this probably isn't the place to start; not for a while anyway. Ever since I started making pancakes myself, it has been a journey of experimentation, one which only occasionally results in mild success. But I am getting better. And this blog is a place where I am going to chronicle my adventures in pancake making, whether they are a smashing success or an utter failure.
Now, on to my story. I bought a pre-seasoned cast iron skillet yesterday, since I'd heard from several people a lot of really nice things about cooking pancakes on cast iron, so I thought I'd give it a try.
I had also visited the farmer's market yesterday and bought a pint of the sweetest strawberries it has ever been my pleasure to devour. So, I had a brilliant idea: "Hey!" I thought, "I haven't tried making pancakes that aren't plain yet. What if I put strawberries in the pancakes?!" And I went to bed content in the idea that, in the morning, I would be delightedly stuffing strawberry pancakes into my face.
Little did I know, naively dreaming away of strawberries and pancakes, that it would all go horribly wrong.
Alright I can't keep this up anymore. Spoilers: it wasn't really that bad. I didn't burn my house down or anything, the pancakes just didn't turn out particularly good. I'm not really sure where I went wrong. I diligently followed all the directions I received with my cast iron skillet, but when I plopped on the first pancake, it went from under-cooked to burned in the span of probably 10 seconds. The second one I tried completely stuck to the skillet.
I stood there, staring in defeat at the black, sticky mess on my kitchen stove for a few moments. Then I pulled out my aluminum non-stick skillet and tried that. And lo: I made three perfect strawberry pancakes.
Or so I thought. When I cut into them and took my first bite: squishy. Plain. Buttermilk.
I'm all for buttermilk pancakes, but this was bordering on disgusting; just about all I tasted was the buttermilk. And those amazingly sweet strawberries I mentioned before? The buttermilk had made them all tangy and kind of gross. On the plus side, I just doused them in maple syrup and they were salvageable; maple syrup makes everything better (I would wear that on a t-shirt, I love maple syrup that much).
All in all, a disappointing first post, but a necessary one. I'm chocking this one up as a learning experience; I get the feeling there will be many of these before this little thing is over. And maybe next time I'll use whole milk instead...
